Gas station charging $8.64/gal

A Chevron gas station in the tiny town of Mendocino was charging $8.64 a gallon for regular gas Wednesday morning, which was three dollars more than the Chevron on East Perkins Street in Ukiah.

Many local residents reported not being surprised at the high prices at the pumps on the coast, including 5th District Mendocino County Supervisor Ted Williams, who said, “They’re always high.”

Mary Benjamin, a reporter with the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and the Mendocino Beacon, took a photo of the gas pumps at the Chevron station on Main Street around 11 a.m. that showed the price for regular was $8.64 per gallon, and the price for Supreme was $8.85 per gallon.

Benjamin said those prices were only shown on the pumps, not posted on a large sign, and only one pump was operating. She said no one was there to speak with at the station.

According to the American Automobile Association’s gas prices tracker, the national average charged for gas on March 9 was $4.252 per gallon, and California’s average price was at $5.57, with neighboring Nevada at $4.77, Oregon at $4.66 and Arizona at $4.40.

When asked Wednesday if the price per pump charged at the Chevron in Mendocino was the highest gas price in the state, Aldo Vazquez, the AAA spokesman for Northern California, said he did not have that information.

When asked how AAA determines the average price per gallon of gas in the state and in each county, Vazquez said they take an average of all the receipts from people’s trips to the pumps.

According to AAA, Mendocino County’s average price per gallon was actually lower than the state’s average at $5.43 per gallon, and nearby Sonoma County’s average price slightly higher at $5.693. Another neighboring county, Humboldt, had nearly the highest average gas prices in the state at $5.82.

Also on Wednesday, AAA had Mono County, located along the border with Nevada, as the county with the highest average gas price in the state, and Vazquez said that had been the case for at least a year.